Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-09
TIE STATE AND DISTRICT FAIRS.

BY courtesy of L. Z, Shippce, President
OF the San joaquin Valley Agricultural
Society, we are enabled TO present this
morning an admirable engraving Of the
new Pavilion of that Society, now in pro-
cess of construction at Stockton. Its value
is found in the testimony it bears to the
worth OF the San Joaquin Society, the
energy and public spirit of Its members
and the unreasonable benefit the Society
has been TO the San Joaquin valley.
When District Agricultural Societies can
erect such splendid exhibition halls as
that to-day illustrated, it means that the
fairs held in such districts are agencies of
the highest Importance in developing the
country, and making known its resources.
They are educators of the people also, and
the means Of exchanging experiences in
agriculture and stock-growing which can
not be oyerestimated in value.
There is not a district in the State that
cannot possess as good a Pavilion as that of
the San joaquin Society. Some of them
already have fine buildings and valuable
stock grounds. In time there will be in
every district proper exhibition halls, for
California fairs are growing, and must con-
tinue TO grow, in importance. They ought
to be encouraged, administered in right
directions, call 10 their aid the best skill
and broadest wisdom Of the commonwealth,
and command the profound interest of all
the people, and none more so than the
parent or State Fair.
The attempt to kill off these district So
ceties 10y transferring all energy, effort and
exhibits TO the exposition of a private con-
Germ at San Francisco has been made, and
that it is disgraceful and unmanly as
sault upon the interior, we do not hesitate
to say. The men who arc engineering the
scheme are not doing work that is bene-
iicial to the State. The attempt to cripple
interior fairs by crossing their dates with
metropolitan rival SHOW is directly
and viciously an assault upon material
State interests.
For TIE stranger on visiting the State
should lie induced by all fair and honora-
bic means 20 visit all parts of it, to attend
upon product expositions at the point of
production; to visit the districts at the
time their fairs are held; to see the lands
and the people, and observe local condi-
tons and society He can learn nothing
at the San Francisco fair of any district,
beyond the fact that it grows this or that
fruit or grain, and in stated quantities.
He can gain at that fair no adequate idea
of the conditions OF production, of climatic
factors, Of the environment, and of the
soil. For I'll these things he must go into
the district itself, and there is no better
time than that when the district fair is
held and the agriculturists stand ready
and anxious to impart information and to
give demonstrations. But the Mechanics
Institute syndicate ask the stranger to
abandon the State and district fairs in its
behalf, and thereafter, if time permits, to
so into the interior and apply such in
formation as he may have gained.
How much broader would have been the
public spirit of the organizers of the
scheme If they had said: ave viii not
bid against the interior societies for COUNTY
exhibits; We will not endeavor to win ex-
hihiturs from you; We will not hold our
exposition upon your dates, for your inter-
ests and ours are mutual, and we viii do
nothing to dispirit you, or to lessen the
effectiveness Of your labors." But these
shortsighted men have said, practically:
"San Francisco is the State; every one
comes here, and here we would prefer the
stranger should remain. We will do all
We can to satisfy his spirit of inquiry by
making an exhibition in the metropolis at
the same time you hold yours in the
country. We have hidden for the ex
hibits you usually have; we have
tempted the people to abandon YOU and
bring their products here, instead of to
your exposition we have sent out agents
to organize local endeayor to carry ex-
hibitors out of your district; we have gone
beyond the limit OF our legal right to ex-
ist, and set up stock show and added
racing as an additional lure, as well as
means of money getting for our private